Guess-the-verb: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:36, 25 November 2017

"Guess-the-verb" (sometimes abbreviated as GTV) is the name of a particular fault in game design where although the player has correctly guessed what he is meant to do, the game's parser does not understand unless he uses a particular and possibly non-obvious way to phrase the command. For example, if there is a crate to be opened with a crowbar and the only way to open it is to "pry crate with crowbar", other actions like "open crate with crowbar" give a misleading response.

Some games, such as The Edifice (Lucian Smith, 1997, Z-code) and Ad Verbum (Nick Montfort, 2002, Z-code) intentionally include guess-the-verb puzzles to good effect but in contexts where the puzzles are explicitly about language.

Solution

Plenty of Beta-testing.
A good thesaurus can also come in handy.
Play plenty of IF to get a feel for the sort of verbs considered standard - which may not always be the standard library ones.
When coding synonyms, make them actual synonyms instead of giving responses along the lines of 'Try INSCRIBE rather than WRITE.' It's just polite.
Include a special verbs list in your Help and/or About menus. If these verbs are going to be used a lot, draw attention to those menus in the banner text.

Game homages

ADRIFT-O-Rama (Dana Crane as "Mystery"; 2003; ADRIFT 4) features "Guess the Verb Mountain" as the penultimate hole of a novelty miniature golf course.
Guess the Verb! (Leonard Richardson; 2002; Z-code) uses the phrase as the instruction in a surreal carnival game.

Links

"You Can't Get Ye Flask", a.k.a. Guess The Verb at TV Tropes Wiki

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-"Guess-the-verb" is the name of a particular fault in game design where although the player has correctly guessed what he is meant to do, the game's parser does not understand unless he uses a particular and possibly non-obvious way to phrase the command. For example, if there is a crate to be opened with a crowbar and the only way to open it is to "pry crate with crowbar", other actions like "open crate with crowbar" give a misleading response.
+"'''Guess-the-verb'''" (sometimes [[abbreviations|abbreviated]] as '''GTV''') is the name of a particular fault in game design where although the [[player]] has correctly guessed what he is meant to do, the game's [[parser]] does not understand unless he uses a particular and possibly non-obvious way to phrase the [[command]]. For example, if there is a crate to be opened with a crowbar and the only way to open it is to "pry crate with crowbar", other actions like "open crate with crowbar" give a misleading response.
-Some games, such as ''The Edifice'' ([[Lucian Smith]], 1997, [[Z-code]]) and ''Ad Verbum'' ([[Nick Montfort]], 2002, [[Z-code]]) inentionally include guess-the-verb puzzles to good effect, but in contexts where the puzzles are explicitly ''about'' language.
+Some games, such as ''[[The Edifice]]'' ([[Lucian Smith]], 1997, [[Z-code]]) and ''[[Ad Verbum]]'' ([[Nick Montfort]], 2002, Z-code) intentionally include guess-the-verb puzzles to good effect but in contexts where the puzzles are explicitly ''about'' language.
-''Guess the Verb!'' ([[Leonard Richardson]], 2002, ) uses the phrase as the instruction in a surreal carnival game.
+==Solution==
+* Plenty of [[Beta-testing]].
+* A good [http://thesaurus.reference.com thesaurus] can also come in handy.
+* Play plenty of IF to get a feel for the sort of verbs considered standard - which may not always be the standard library ones.
+* When coding synonyms, make them actual synonyms instead of giving responses along the lines of 'Try INSCRIBE rather than WRITE.' It's just polite.
+* Include a special verbs list in your Help and/or About menus. If these verbs are going to be used a lot, draw attention to those menus in the banner text.
-[[Category:Glossary]]
+==Game homages==
+* ''[[ADRIFT-O-Rama]]'' ([[Dana Crane]] as "Mystery"; 2003; ADRIFT 4) features "Guess the Verb Mountain" as the penultimate hole of a novelty miniature golf course.
+* ''[[Guess the Verb!]]'' ([[Leonard Richardson]]; 2002; Z-code) uses the phrase as the instruction in a surreal carnival game.
+==Links==
+* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouCantGetYeFlask "You Can't Get Ye Flask", a.k.a. Guess The Verb] at TV Tropes Wiki
+[[Category:Glossary]] [[Category:Anti-Pattern]] [[Category:Undesirable features]]